Introductory Flyer

2004

Fresh Local Food Delivered to Your Door!

The Just Local Food Cooperative of Eau Claire is proud to introduce our home delivery service offering fresh local foods from the nearby countryside.

We will deliver your order to your door (or a cooler outside your home) each Friday. We have a tremendous lineup of local farmers who will be the stars of this show. We feature with local organic milk in returnable glass bottles, cream, cheese, and butter from Crystal Ball Farms (this is the best milk we’ve ever tasted), fresh free-range eggs from a few local sources, organic beef from Wheatfield Hill, pork from the Kostka Family Farm, fair trade coffee from a local non-profit roaster called Farmer-to-Farmer, chocolate truffles & sauces from River Chocolates, Eat My Fish trout, locally bottled water and Govin’s Meats and Berries.

Almost all of our products are fresh and need to be kept in a cool environment for maximum shelf life. Our grandparents used to have special doors in their houses for the milkman to slide the fresh milk in, or they had a fancy box on the porch ready for delivery. We’re asking you to provide an appropriately sized cooler in a convenient location at your home. This can be placed outside on Friday morning with a few ice packs or a tray of ice cubes. There are some new coolers available called "five day coolers", these have extra insulation and would work well for this purpose if you don’t already have a cooler. Of course placing it in the shade would help too.

Our delivery will take place sometime between 10am and 8pm. If you happen to be home, we’re happy to bring your food right on in to your kitchen for you.

All of the organic milk from Crystal Ball Farms comes in thick glass returnable bottles. They are thouroughly cleaned and sanitized at the farm, but your help is needed in rinsing them out when you are finished. We’ve found that a few rinses with cold water works out very well. Place your clean empty returns (we do collect the caps, not required though!) out with your cooler and we will calculate the total accordingly. Bottle deposits are $1.50 each for all sizes, so your first order total will be a bit higher than the rest.

Dairy

We’re proud to carry pasteurized milk from Crystal Ball Farms. We’d like to point out a few interesting things about their milk.

As you’ll see, this milk naturally separates into a thick creamy top layer and a thinner milky layer below. The chocolate milk adds another thick brown layer at the bottom. Some of you may like to use this top cream layer for your coffee, or separate it yourself to make a custom blend. For instance, you could order whole milk and pour off most of the cream (saving it for coffee or baking) to make your own "reduced fat" milk.

Sometimes the top cream layer can be a bit stubborn. We always recommend keeping a finger or hand over the cap so you don’t accidentally spill.

Milk is sensitive to sunlight, so try to keep your milk out of direct light. Being so fresh and unprocessed, this milk is also sensitive to varying storage temperatures. You’d be surprised how much cold air is lost when you open the refrigerator door. For the longest storage times, store your milk at the back of the fridge where the temperatures are more stable.

Crystal Ball Farms has a herd of about 100 cows. They grow their own certified organic crops, so the cows eat 100% certified organic food. Don’t you wish we all could do that? Of course their cows are not shot up with rBGH or other artificial hormones. This is pure, REAL milk. You can taste the difference.

They also make their own cheddar cheese, available in plain (anything but plain, really! it’s great!), peppercorn and onion-parsley. Their squeaky fresh cheese curds come in plain, ranch, onion-garlic, onion-parsley, and dill. We’ve alos got their half & half and creamy butter in one pound tubs.

Organic?

All products we refer to as "organic" are in fact certified Organic according to the new Federal USDA Organic Standards. Farms that go through certification are undeniably working towards a sustainable future and farming responsibly. The process of certification adds one more layer of certainty and dedication to the cause of sustainable small farming.

However the costs associated with certification can be high, and many farms don’t do enough volume to make certification worthwhile for each and every product they make available. Members of the Clearwater Collective have visited and talked with every producer. We are confident that even though some products are not labeled organic, they are of high quality and the producers are committed to sustainable agriculture. If you have questions about the products, you’re encouraged to speak with the farmers directly. You can also contact Aaron at aaron@justlocalfood.com or 552-0849.

Fair Trade Coffee

Our local non-profit coffee supplier has added two more options, swiss-water decaf and espresso. The decaf is a medium roast. Both are available in one pound or half pound bags, and can be whole bean or ground. Thanks for supporting responsible, sustainable third world development!

If coffee ain’t your thing, we have fair-trade organic teas through the buying club, as well as other coffee alternatives.

 

Wheatfield Hill

Wheatfield Hill Organics is a small, 5th generation family farm dedicated to providing the areas finest certified organic fruits, vegetables and beef. We are located 1 mile south of Durand,WI. Bordered on the west by the Chippewa River and on the east by limestone bluffs, the rolling land was chosen by our forefathers in the early 1900's for pasturing their dairy cattle. Although not used today for dairying , we continue to care for this land by producing certified organic forages, fruits, vegetables and beef. Grandpa Robert, age 91, still resides in the farm house, which is the gathering place for over 4 generations. 888-255-0491, W6754 Simpson Lane, Durand.

Kostka's Pigs

We are a MOSA certified organic crop farm; raising corn, soybeans, alfalfa, oats and rye. We respect the relationship between soil health, plants, animals and people. Our anmals lead a relaxing life. We give them plenty of living space, fresh air and sunshine. We do not give artificial hormones or antibiotics. No pesticides are used on our farm grounds.

We strive to keep our farm as sustainable as possible. Our animals are healthy. If we need to intervene we use homeopathic methods, such as garlic tinctures or aloe juice.

Natural raised pork from the Kostka family farm is a labor of love. Organically raised, our sows farrow and graze on pasture. They are supplemented with organic grain. Our pigs wallow in mud holes to cool down and prevent sunburn. The also have shaded areas for resting. Once weaning happens sows are moved back to the barn and given access to pasture. Every attempt is made for them to lead stress free lives.

Standing Orders

Many of our customers have found it convenient to place a standing order with us. Here’s how that works. You call, email or leave an order form to us marked with the items you know you want every week. We mark that order on our upcoming deliveries and you don’t need to call if that’s all you want. If you’ll be on vacation or would like extra items on a particular week, just let us know. The standing order can be changed at any time. It’s that simple. You just need to remember the cooler on Fridays!

Our Buying Club

A food buying club is an association of people who get together to purchase food. As a group, our purchasing power increases and allows us to access the wholesale marketplace. By buying through wholesale distributors and directly from farmers, our members save money. The Clearwater Collective works with Natural Farms, a natural foods distributor based in Madison. We chose Natural Farms as they are one of the only locally-owned and operated natural foods distributors left in the United States.

We currently receive an order through them every four weeks. Feel free to browse their product selection at naturalfarms.org, you'll find they have quite a selection (fresh pasta, yogurts and dairy products, frozen foods, fresh produce, toilet paper, fair trade chocolates...) We process and package your order and total your bill. Call Crystal to sign up today!

You're making a local impact

Each time we spend a dollar, we should consider the full value of our choices, and remember that each dollar is a vote for the future direction of our community. The votes we cast with our dollars every day influence our community at least as much as those cast on election days. With better information, customers might more often choose to patronize local businesses because it benefits the community. Local owners with much of their life savings invested in their businesses have a natural interest in the long-term health of the community.

So I find it is our job as a local business dedicated to the local economy to provide information to our customers as to how their money significantly impacts the local economy. In our particular business that job is fairly simple. We are the "middlemen" between local farms and you the consumer. Most of the money you spend on food with us goes straight to the farmers. The rest goes to cover our costs in marketing and distributing the food. You can be assured that we take every one of our purchases as a business seriously.

For example, we knew that driving a truck would entail importing non-local fuel, lubricants, parts, etc. So we thought of ways to replace the non-local petroleum with local resources.

We chose bicycles for one as they circumvent fuel altogether. Our bikes are purchased and serviced at small local businesses. However we still need to transport products by motorized vehicle.

Our truck runs on local farm-produced biodiesel fuel without modifications to the vehicle. (That means pretty much any diesel vehicle out there can run this fuel as well.) Biodiesel throws the concept of "dirty-diesel" out the window. The biodiesel fuel is made by a farmers cooperative in Iowa, and brought to us by a farmers cooperative south of Eau Claire, Countryside Coop.

By it’s nature, our delivery business is efficient in that it replaces trips (invariably by car) taken by our customers to one of the outlying grocery stores. A good comparison is the postal service. Imagine if, instead of mail carriers delivering mail, everyone had to make their way down to the post office each day!

Other Products

We didn’t have room to feature each of our suppliers in this flyer, but we welcome you tou our website at justlocalfood.com . If you’re not an internet person, just give us a call at 577-5564 and we’ll get you started.

Our Co-op

Just Local Food is organized as a worker owned cooperative. Each member is part owner/investor and has equal decisionmaking power. We chose this model to accomodate our lives (raising kids, other jobs, gardens, etc.) and to provide a sustainable income for ourselves down the road. It’s Just as in justice for the farmers, the earth, the workers, and the consumers. Local as in produced nearby in Western Wisconsin and regionally where appropriate.